Page 101 of Fate and Fury

58

KATERINA

The portal shimmered outside the cottage, as if waiting for her. Katerina yanked the door open and stepped into the dank tunnel, her pulse thundering in chest and wrists and throat. She heard nothing behind her, not the thud of a footfall or the rush of another’s breath. But Niko was a Shadow. He had ever been silent when he chose, so that meant nothing. And who knew what form he’d taken to follow her toward the Light…if he was there at all.

Taking one step, then another, was the hardest thing she’d ever done. With each one, she feared she was leaving him behind forever. Demons were not to be trusted; it had been drilled into her since the cradle. And Elena might as well be a demon herself.

She had lost Niko once. She couldn’t lose him again.

“Lux,”Katerina murmured. Sammael hadn’t said she couldn’t use her magic in the tunnels, just that she couldn’t use it to search for Niko or bind him to her. She kept her eyes fixed on the tiny patch of light that hovered above her palm, so she wouldn’t be tempted to turn around.

If it had all been for nothing—betraying her village, parlaying with demons and Elena—she didn’t know what she would do.Baba would never take her back. Even the Kniaz might not want her. She’d be an outcast, prowling the woods without a Shadow, prey for demons. Maybe this was what Sammael had had in mind, from the moment he hid the Book beneath the stones.

But why would Sammael set her up to be easy pickings for Gadreel? They were at war, after all. The last thing he wanted was for his archenemy to get hold of Katerina. Still, what did she know of demons’ twisted ways? Perhaps Sammael and Gadreel were in league, and their rivalry was simply a front, in order to accomplish a larger, more nefarious goal.

The notion nagged at her as she placed one booted foot after another on the path that led upward, out of the Underworld. It was troublesome, but not nearly as troublesome as the hook snagged in her heart. With every step, she worried that she was alone. That Sammael and Elena sat in their cottage, laughing at her, Niko hovering at Elena’s side, a helpless, hopeless Shadow.

Her hand rose to the amulet around her throat. It hung there, a shell of its former self, cold and empty. Nothing beat within.

Had she been tricked again? Used?

She wanted so desperately to turn around. To see for herself. But Sammael had told her that if she did, the magic that cemented their bargain would be forfeit. And little as she trusted him, she wasn’t willing to gamble with Niko’s existence. With anything else, yes. But not him.

Katerina plodded onward. The voices that had plagued her on her first trip through the tunnels were blessedly silent, and the stone flared cold in her pocket, guiding her. Finally, the end of the tunnel came into view. It slanted upward, thin beams of light filtering down through the trees, falling in a weak spray on the walls and the floor.

She quickened her pace. Beneath her boots, life flowed within the small roots that supplied the world above the surface. They fed her magic, strengthening her. The tunnel narrowed,and she should have been able to hear Niko’s steps behind her, echoing off the walls and the ceiling, but there was nothing. Only the rasp of her own breath and the pad of her boots and the pull of the Light drawing her upward, the terrible sense of wrongness that had swept over her when she descended to the Underworld retreating one unwilling inch at a time.

It didn’t want to let her go, and it had no claim on her, other than its grip on her Shadow. If it was so reluctant to release her, then why would it ever let go of the man she loved?

The ceiling dropped now, lower even than it had been when she’d entered. Katerina dropped to her knees and crawled, gasping as the walls closed around her. A root broke free, twining around her ankle, and she hacked at it, afraid to use her magic, lest the spell backfire and collapse the tunnel, crushing her and the ghost of her Shadow beneath its weight.

The root dug in, wrapping tighter. It felt like a snake, all scales and greedy coils. Above her, the ceiling pressed down and down. The walls inched closer, and the light at the end of the tunnel receded, growing smaller and smaller, a pinprick in darkness.

Katerina fought. She struggled. But the roots had her now, drawing her toward them, claiming her, holding her fast. Her power narrowed to a trickle, the voices of the Underworld—MineandYesandFool Dimi, weak witch, slave to the Light—echoing ever-louder in her ears.

Something tore the knife from her hand, casting down the length of the darkened tunnel, in the direction where Niko would be. Though surely he wasn’t there at all; her Shadow would never have stood for Katerina being tortured like this. He would have snatched up her blade and made short work of the roots that had her in their grip, whirling through them the way he used to dispatch hordes of demons, a blur and a blaze.

Her knife clanked to the earth behind her, though she didn’t dare try to peer through the dark to see where it had fallen. No one lifted it again in her service. There was only chilling laughter, filling the tunnels, echoing in her ears and her head.We have you now, Katerina Ivanova, Dimi of Kalach. You are ours. Serve here, with your Shadow, in chains. Serve the glory of the Dark.

She felt herself diminishing. Felt the Dark trying to bloom within her, though the Light struggled to force it back into the corners of her soul. The earth pressed in on her on all sides, and her chest heaved, her lungs struggling for breath.

It would be so easy to give in. Without Niko, what was the point?

But no. Even if Niko were gone from her forever, she had a duty to honor his memory. And he would be so ashamed of her if she gave up now. She would not be a Dimi worthy of her Shadow.

She would honor Niko Alekhin, even if he had passed forever beyond the veil. She would be the Dimi she had been born to be. She was no one’s slave. And she would rather die than be a handmaiden of the Dark.

Light burst from Katerina, seeping through her skin the way it had from Niko’s on the road to Drezna. She glowed, the intricate tracing of her blood vessels visible, a mockery of the roots that fought to hold her fast. A scream tore loose from her throat, filled with rage and strength and power.

Scorched by the Light, the roots recoiled. The earth itself retreated, driven back, inch by grudging inch. Katerina’s lungs filled with stale but welcome air as she clawed her way forward, crawling as fast as she could, gravel scraping beneath her fingernails. The square of light at the surface widened and she leapt for it, leaving the howl of the tunnel’s voices behind as she flung herself through and landed on the forest floor at last.

59

KATERINA

Katerina lay on the ground underneath the eye of the false Bone Moon, struggling to catch her breath. Every part of her ached. Her knees, from crawling. Her chest, from struggling to breathe. Her fingers, the nails torn and ragged. And her heart.

The last vestiges of hope stirred within her as she turned her head, praying with all her strength that she’d find Niko standing there. But the clearing was empty.

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